nd it soon lay lifeless upon the ground.

The lizard was nigh six feet from snout to tail; and Saloo, assisted by
Murtagh, soon slipped a piece of his vegetable rope around its jaws, and
slung it up to a horizontal branch for the purpose of skinning it. Thus
suspended, with limbs and arms sticking out, it bore a very disagreeable
resemblance to a human being just hanged. Saloo did not care anything
about this, but at once commenced peeling off its skin; and then he cut
the body into quarters, and subdivided them into "collops," which were
soon sputtering in the blaze of a bright fire. As the Malay had
promised, these proved tender, tasting like young pork steaks, with a
slight flavour of chicken, and just a _soupcon_ of frog. Delicate as
they were, however, after three days' dieting upon them all felt
stronger--almost strong enough, indeed, to commence their grand journey.

Just then another, and still more strengthening, kind of food was added
to their larder. It was obtained by a mere accident, in the form of a
huge wild boar of the Bornean species, which, scouring the forest in
search of fruits or roots, had strayed close to their camp under the
fig-tree. He came too close for his own safety; a bullet from Captain
Redwood's rifle having put an abrupt stop to his "rootings."

Butchered in proper scientific fashion, he not only afforded them food
for the time in the shape of pork chops, roast ribs, and the like; but
gave them a couple of hams, which, half-cooked and cured by smoking,
could be carried as a sure supply upon the journey.

And so provisioned, they at length determined on commencing it, taking
with them such articles of the wreck-salvage as could be conveniently
transferred, and might prove beneficial. Bidding adieu to the pinnace,
the dear old craft which had so safely carried them through the dangers
of the deep, they embarked on a voyage of a very different kind, in the
courses of which they were far less skilled, and of whose tracks and
perils they were even more apprehensive. But they had no other
alternative. To remain on the eastern coast of Borneo would be to stay
there for ever. They could not entertain the slightest hope of any ship
appearing off shore to rescue them. A vessel so showing itself would
be, in all probability, a prau filled with bloodthirsty pirates, who
would either kill or make captives of them, and afterwards sell them
into slavery: and a slavery from which no civilis